Candy doesn’t know what to think! The other two dogs seem to not mind Gizmo, but Candy keeps nipping at it and licking her lips.. We’ll have to keep a close eye on her, or Gizmo will be a snack!
Once we got down into the drain, I constantly had to remind the kids to be quiet. There are all kinds of critters down there, and if you are careful you can slip up on them and observe them. Otherwise they will just bloop into the water and you’ll never know they are even there. We didn’t have to go too far to see our first critter:
A medium sized alligator snapping turtle! He has obviously lived down there for quite a while since he has all the algea growing on his back. We didn’t pick him up.
Farther upstream we saw this small soft-shelled turtle clinging to the bottom. Keighly quickly wrangled it for observation.
Wildlife! And a turtle, too!
The turtle seemed calm, and we kept it wet while examining it.
Even Emily took a turn holding it.
On the other side of the fork, Keighly somehow caught this small fish with her bare hands!
While heading back out, Ian miraculously spied this small turtle and picked it up.
From here we made our way back to the van. The Zoo’s train came by and everyone looked at us and waved. I had hoped to be a little more discreet, since I assume we probably aren’t supposed to be down in there. When Emily looked at the people on the train she slipped on some slime and cut her foot. It started bleeding pretty bad, so we needed to leave right then and get it clean.
On our way out we saw the alligator snapping turtle trying to climb the side walls and get into the Zoo! There were some attendants just on the other side of the fence, and we pointed it out to them. They made a call and confirmed it is not theirs, so it must live in Gordon’s Creek. We left it alone so we could get Emily home. As we climbed our way out, Ian saw another smaller alligator snapping turtle under the bridge.
Back home, we cleaned and bandaged Emily’s foot. Then we went outside for some target practice!
After mowing the grass, I noticed I had cut up a $5 bill. We assembled the pieces and taped them together, then took it to the bank to see if they would exchange it.
Success!
While Emily was contemplating getting her ears pierced, she mentioned it to Papa and he told her if she did he would buy her some earrings. While Nana and Papa were visiting, they produced a surprise gift! What could it be?
Ooooo! The excitement!
A box within a box!
Some silver hoops! Thank you Papa!
Woah! Is that correct? Yup! We saved almost $500! We ended up with just shy of a full twelve-place settings (missing 4 mugs) for less than $100!
A late start, but today is the first day of PCS for Chandler. He is excited!
This year, the PCS boosterthon was trying to raise money for new playground equipment for the elementary campus being built near the high school (to be opened fall of 2012). They didn’t reach their goal, but did raise over $50K! I’m also proud to say that each of our kids ran every lap they could!
Above is a slideshow, hit the 
full screen button in the lower right after it starts playing.
The excitement quickly died down once they saw (and smelled) the exact process.
Chandler and Ian ran the motor control, and I guided the snake into the pipe. For the most part, everything went smoothly. After we had despensed of all 100′, we started reeling it back in. I didn’t think it had actually done anything, but when the end came out of the pipe it had what looked like a mop head on it! The obstruction was clear, job done, and we even got the rental back early for credit. I’m sure I impressed everyone with my “I’m Bringing Nerdy Back” shirt.
We play a lot of board/family games, and the kids finally started playing Lego Creationary. Very fun! You pick a card and what is on the card you have to make out of legos. Then you hope it resembles it enough that the other people can guess what it is. The kids had a great time playing it, though the legos can get messy.
We went to Claire’s to have it done. Here, she picks out the earrings she wants, “Crystal Rainbow Daisies“
They pierced both ears at the same time. It was a little scary, but the results were worth it: earrings!
Yay! Our little girl is growing up!
When Keighly was asked about piercing her ears, she replied “Grrr.”
The Incredibealls! 